Political Quotes

“I thank my good friend, Dr. Burgess from Texas, for yielding and also for being able to work with him in terms of our Congressional Health Care Caucus. We cover the health care industry from both important aspects--you as a physician and all of your experience specifically in the medical field. My background came up through therapy. Most of my almost 30 years of working in nonprofit community health care was really on the administration side; some as a therapist, but largely in administering programs in hospitals, in comprehensive rehab centers, and nursing homes. I was licensed as a nursing home administrator towards the end of my career there. And, frankly, I dealt very, very closely with Medicare out of necessity because Medicare is, on the in-patient side, at least 60 percent in terms of market share, in terms of payment. So Medicare is very important. I have to say to my good friend, I was pretty naive when I came to Washington in January 2009. That's when I was sworn in. I won election in 2008. I thought everybody knew that one of the impending crises had to do with the insolvency and the eventual bankruptcy of the Medicare program, only to get here and find out that that was not on the agenda under the previous leadership. And, frankly, it has emerged because it is a truth. When you look at the situation today with the Medicare system, Medicare is in jeopardy. And what we're trying to do, what the Republicans are trying to do, is to save Medicare.…”